22 July, 2013

Hey whats up you crazies in the Tetons?? That sounds like fun that you are riding bikes and having fun with summer.  Some days its like summer here too, but some days its just dang cold.  Mostly the wind.  Last night I was freezing, but my sweatshirt was in the wash...didn't have that layer of warmth.  =(

 So.  this week was pretty cool.  We definitely worked hard and it was a busy one.  For starters, someone in our ward informed us that Chile means "fin del mundo".  aka end of the world.  coolest thing ever?? kinnndddda cool.

 We had to go to the PDI this week for my companions visa, like the dmv with its long lines and stuff.  We were waiting for a while, and then we all heard a thump.  A guy had a heart attack and it was really sad!  It took him a while to come around and there was like emergency people in there.  He was luckily still alive tho. poor guy.

 We worked some more at hermano raves on tuesday and got to mix some cement and fill it in.  Now, THAT is some fun stuff.  Our arms were a bit sore the next day. haha.  Hermano rave is da bomb.  We tried to take a picture of us with him and the fence, but my camera died. lo siento.

  So....our studies continue to be awesome!!!! OH man. Sometimes Hermana Schrader and I entertain ourselves by talking in really feo gringa accents, like....awful, on occasion.  It is seriously the funniest thing ever.  hehehehehe.  #missionhumor#

  I've studied a lot of predicad mi evangelio (pmg) and its the best!!  its seriously like everything you need to know to be a good missionary.  I've been reading a lot in chapter 5 about the book of mormon.  I will tell you, from all the studying we do, our scriptures are really quite glorified with color.  and we still have a year to go!!!! PSYCHED.  

  We had zone conference last week. It was awesome!!  Its always good to kinda remind ourselves of our goals and try harder.  I decided that I want to talk to more people.  I'll be honest, sometimes I don't want to talk to people because either they talk your ear off and I don't understand some of what they say, or they're intimidating, or some other stupid excuse...butttttt... Elder Holland has it right when he says,"this is eternal life." soooo. there ya have it.  Gonna try and talk to more each day!!  

  I think the biggest miracle for us is how much we feel like we have improved in so many ways with the Lords help.  We don't feel quite as lost anymore, and we still have a lot of fun and laugh a lot.  Our teaching skills together has gone well, and overall, its pretty awesome here!!!  I still have a ton to learn, but at least I feel like I have progressed.

  Let me tell you about Abuelita Martita, as well like to call her.  She's our little chilean grams.  She is the wife of Hermano Santiz, but she is inactive.  Whenever we go see her, she answers saying,"quien es?"

 "las misioneras!"

  "awwwww pobrecitas! Entren!"  hahahaha. she is so cute.  A little crazy but awesome. I showed her a picture of da fam and she thinks justin is handsome. lol.  I'll send a picture of her in the future.  She is seriously adorable.

  Ok so super weird story.  We were trying to find a menos activo and it was like deep in the jungle.  We literally felt like we were in star wars when theres all the little ewoks because we looked down at this hut and there was like a fire going and a crazy dog that was gonna eat us, and like 5 children, two of them trying to restrain the dog.  It was seriously the weirdest thing ever.  hahaha.  they kids told us to come down and their grandma came out and said they knew the menos activo we were looking for.  She said to one of the little girls, " coni, take her to Soledad."  So we followed this girl even further in this crazy place to a different shack and found Soledad.  It was so strange...hahaha. but super cool cuz we had been trying to find her house for a while.  The numbers on the street here are hardly ever in much order.  

 Cool story.  We were walking to lunch and we saw an old lady carrying something heavy.  We asked if we could help, and she graciously accepted.  We helped carry the thing that was quite heavy, and she said, "I think the big guy upstairs sent you two to help me."  Turns out she was a neighbor to a miembro and said we can come back in the future.  She showed us a ton of her family pictures and liked to talk a lot, but really nice lady!  We are going back this week.  

  We had interviews with president.  the asistentes and him and the mechanic or something came.  You can imagine how nervous we may or may not have felt because neither of us have ever had president come and clean check our pension.  We cleaned and passed and it was fine.  Our interviews both went well, and I think above all, i'm blessed to have an awesome mission president.  i told him about our last transfer and a half and how much we really have learned and had to learn ourselves being good missionaries.  i spoke in spanish the whole time too and he told me my spanish was improving "tan rapido!" so that made me feel happy. haha.  I really feel like President and his family care about me and believe in us.  It makes me want to be all the more obedient missionary.  

 We met a crazy drunk two days ago.  usually most of them i just say, thanks if they complement, and keep walking. The guy stopped us and said, "can i tell you girls something??  don't get mad now!  you're really pretty!  Like really really pretty!"  we both kinda were like, thanks and tried to keep walking.  then the guy asked a girl passing by, "  arent they pretty?" and the girl passing just ignored him really.  Then he said, " mentirosa" under his breath (liar).  hahaha. ummm he was nuts.  Our friend Jessy from the internet cafe was signaling from behind him to just keep walking. lol.  it was crazy.  

  Silvia came to church again yesterday.  YAY! but.  It was funny.  Milo was our gospel principals teacher and watching those two was great.  Turns out Milo cleared up some stuff like what the Holy spirit is, and she wants him to come with us next time we teach her. haha.

  Yesterday we were walking home and there were evangelicos out singing all over the town.  not really sure why, but maybe its a holiday of some kind. interesting stuff!  

  Well, this week has lots of good to come.  Gotta go shopping.  Sometimes when we are low on funds, we get really creative, and you're talking to a girl who makes pretty creative stuff at college.  Mission is even crazier stuff!  we don't have an oven in our pension.   

  Well....have a good week.  gonna go play some soccer and maybe eat an empanada or something.  CHAO I love you all!

1. This ones for erika  =)

2. Nuestra zona vina del mar oeste. sweeeeet.

3. stepped in some playdough. i guess thats an improvement from dog poop.

4. Servicio

5. shoveled some cement yall.

6. Doris, me, Silvia, Adelina.  Silvia is an investigador. we love them!  other two are members.  Noche de hogar.

7. Hahaha. Us and Alejandro. So cool.

Chile Scenery: 

15 July, 2013

Sup.

SO this week was cool.  But first of all, congrats to Rachel!!! so cute.  

May I just say, thanks for going to all the cool places without me!!!! moab and now yellowstone??? ok have fun!!! =)

well...to be fair (erika...haahhaha)....

But for reals. Lets see.  Ok, funny story while its on my mind.  My companion and I got asked out by a guy on a motorcycle...lol.  He was nice, but we were like...uhhh what?  bahahahahahha crazy.  He says he works at a bread store. 

It has been some pretty good weather this week which is a definite plus.  Like in the 70s or 80s.  It felt like summer last night...soooo maybe this isnt so bad if this is the dead of winter.  At least during the day, but the wind at night can get really cold.  Walking out of our apartment without gloves at night is like walking outside without pants (or in our case, skirt).    

So this week.  Well, for starters, we had an investigadora come to church yesterday!  So hard to get people to come here sometimes.  We have a member here who is a STUD and literally talks to all her friends about the gospel, and she brought her.  Her name is Silvia.  She is about 83 years old.  Taught her the plan of salvation first half and she liked it. 

     We also have another investigador named Evelin.  I especially like Evelin because she was the first contact i ever did by myself...a few months ago and we had trouble finding where she lived for a bit.  She is awesome!  She believes in the restauration after we taught it to her, and liked what was said about the plan of salvation.  it worked into her life too because she has cancer, and it doesnt sound like things are going well for too much longer =(  she has a problem smoking, but she is so sweet.  She said she wants to come to church next week, and it helps that she lives near our chapel.  

     Taught Alejandro again this week.  hahahaha he just makes hermana schrader and i smile.  He is such a goofy old man and he is really forgetful at times, but it was cool. we visited him and he told us he feels in his heart these things are true, and he stayed focused really well this time too.  (somepeople are hard to keep on topic...especially if you dont know the language very well. lol)

     We saw Cristina and Valentina for the first time in like a month.  Theyve been hard to get ahold of, especially since Cristina doesnt work at the members house anymore.  Not much happened, just that we want to bring a member, probably Milo, to help us out with that at least one lesson. 

     It was a good week.  We taught some good lessons, and Ive been trying to make a habit of all my free time reading the Libro de Mormon aloud to help my spanish.  Im almost finished with alma, so hopefully, ill be fluent here soon?? ive been able to understand a lot better which is awesome.  it defintely helps. 

     I think one of my favorite experiences was contactng a guy named Juan.  He was from the inland and his accent was harder to understand.  He seemed uninterested at first, but eventually he let us share a simple scripture and accepted a book of mormon.  One thing that was interesting is that after we read it and bore testimony, he stayed silent and kinda just looked pondering at the scripture.  It was pretty cool. 

    Oh right. so yesterday, Hermana Schrader and I were assigned to give talks in our ward.  15 minutes each.  Ive done this once in english, so definitely an adventure in spanish.  It went well though.  Hermana Schrader shared a cool story about her dads conversion, and a lot of people really liked it, myself included!  I shared about how to work more together to bring others unto Christ thru missionary work in the ward.  Its true, as Gordon B. Hinckley said, 'there is a better way' for missionary work.  

     Doris, the one who brought Silvia to church, like I said, is awesome.  Her mom and sister arent reallly as active.  Doris helps us a lot though!  They saw the bottom of my companions boots and gave us each a pair of boots. hahaha.  it was cute.  now i have cute little white boots.  super stylish here though!  

     Saturday, we got to do service....IN JEANS!!!!!  we went with the priesthood to go dig holes for posts so make hermano ravé a railing.  im so excited!  not only did i feel like i was in the movie holes, but it felt like i was hiking int he desert again. hahaha. dirty and sunny and sun.  yay.  oh man.  hno ravé is so cute too.  I love that man!  He said, i feel bad! i want to help, but i cant.  

He is paralyzed.  Poor guy =(.  I love our ward.  All of them are just the best!

    We contacted a guy who spoke english this week.  We offered the missionary lessons to him ¨(he also told us he is familiar with mormons because he lived in utah).  he responded, ýeah...but i like my alcohol.  and there are not good alcohol in utah.  lol.

    Ok well thats pretty much it for the week.  Hope all is well.  

   OH wait.  reading the book of ether this week.  its crazzzzzzy. ive nicknamed it the book of captivity and destruction because really thats the essence of that book. so epic!!

   Peace out!

ps. next week ill have been out 5 months. 

   Hermana Emily Hanks

July 9, 2013

haaaai.  

How goes? Ummm happy late cuatro de julio!  Obviously they don't celebrate it down here, but  I think i can be honest when i say i prefer that holiday in the northern hemisphere with sunshine, swimming pools, and bbq's as opposed to lots of rain, cold, boots and little heat. hahahaha.  us Coloradoans down in here still wore red, white, and blue though!

this morning, i was getting ready for the day, and heard a huge bang from the kitchen.  it sounded like literally the heater had crashed to the floor and water was going to everywhere.  I ran into the kitchen and saw my companion looking shocked at what had happened.  she showed me her arm, "hermana...look at my arm. the hairs are singed off!".  the water was running while she had tried to turn on the gas and BAM flame envelops, hermana hides with her arm(thus resulting in singed  arm hairs), so she does not burn. oh man....it was slightly terrifying, but i have to be completely honest, i am still laughing to this minute as i write about that.  all is good now, no worries  =)

Ok crazy week.  We had some goods and bads.  Goods first.  Well, Milena.  IS FLIPPING AWESOME.  We went by and taught her the importance of scripture study because she hasn't really started reading.  She seemed really into it and after we taught, she wanted to read in alma 32 about faith.  She really liked that chapter too!  She is totally starting to having a testimony of her own.  We still have some work to do with her.  She wanted to come to church, which is amazing because getting people to church here is like the downfall.  she reminded us, but said she was going to the south to see her family and wasn't sure if she'd be back.  she wasn't, but next week hopefully she will come.  HOPEFULLYYYYY!!!!

She also made us lunch one day. that was pretty sweet too! and we got her to pray. I like Milena!  We also have a lot in common too.  Like, shes outdoorsy too.  We are apparently friends on fb too now, and she said she likes to do a lot of what i like to do. so thats cool.  

We have visited an older woman in our ward Hermana Mataluna, the one who cristina cares for.  Cristina doesn't care for her anymore, so we have had trouble finding her lately =(  .  Hermana Matalunas son is not a member, and really questions a lot of stuff-in a fair manner. they're good questions, but answering them in spanish??? such as the laws of justice and mercy of God, etc, yeah...  he has been at her house the past few times we have talked to her  and has started participating more. Some of his questions, i can't remember them too well, but were about like i said, the laws of God.  I then asked him if he has a book of mormon.  he said his mom did have a few.  I then told him to read alma 42 to explain because it would explain it better than we could.  He wrote down the verse and i'm hoping he will have read that when we see him next.  

We passed another church this week.  they were singing onward christian soldiers. it was kinda cool.

We seriously have the bestest friends ever. Yin and Yang! they are always in their place by the church and always come greet us. i sent some pics with my bruddahs.  adorbs.  they have gotten in the habit of walking us home too. they're such gems.

Now for the bad!

I almost got bit by a dog this week.  Some little satan dog(there be LOTS of them down here.) was jumping on me, like ,"pet me pet me!" and to be nice, i reached down, and it barely missed me.   soooo thanks for that.  my comp got bit by a different dog this week too.  NOT A FAN.  the street dogs are cool, but other than that, most of the ones that have owners are super annoying.  

We contacted a vieja named malva.  she was very sweet and talked our ears off, but we were excited because she was interested to learn more.  we came back and she took a while to come to the door.  She came outside and shut the door behind her.  She told us how her kids were in town and didn't like the missionaries-they had shared before.  She also said how they make her decisions and she seemed sad, but said she would call us in the future.  it was sad.  I hope she does!

We were contacting (yes, we contact a bit door to door).  One lady came to us at her house and asked where we were from.  We told her the states, and then she said, "vayanse a su propio pais!  No quiero nada con ustedes."  aka go back to your own country.  so...yeah.  

Andd.....the best for last.  We were on the streets one night and my comp was talking to someone on the phone.  I said greeted a guy walking the opposite way of us and he stopped and greeted back.  I told him were missionaries and all, and man.  I want you to compare that man to zeezrom in the book of mormon.  it was exactly like that!!!!  read alma 11 and that will give you a little feel for what this was.  (hmmmm even some v. 23 was running thru our heads)

I don't even know how to describe all that happened.  He questioned every little thing, as if to make us question what we are teaching.  we simply stated what we knew for a fact.  he kinda made fun of me a lot too because my spanish still isn't very good. We both bore testimony tho, he wouldn't let us talk much, and it was a bit hard to walk away because we didn't want to be rude at the same time.  When i was trying to bear testimony, a few times in there, i had to say,"espere! (wait) espere!" because he kept interrupting me.  It was frustrating at the time...haha.and seriously emotionally exhausting.  

we walked away and we knew we had at least stood our ground, even if we dont speak as good of spanish as him.  we didn't fight, even though he tried with his wise and crafty ways.  he left us saying, "think about what i said when you've returned" and my comp saaid, "same invitation to you."  yeah right guy!  creep. i think we did the best we could. If anything, we both agreed that it strengthened us!  

Soooo yeah.  My companion and I are learning a lot though!  We love brainstorming new ways to do things and love studying the scriptures!  AAGHHHHH mormon 8 and 9 is the best thing ever. man.  we have a bad day, there is alwaysalways always something good in the scriptures.  

Okay. to end on a good note....TOTALLY WAS SURPRISED YESTERDAY!!!!!!  we were sitting in church, and all of the sudden, i see a red haired gringa go sit two rows in front of me.  I see her turn around and thought i recognized her.  I patted to the seat in front of me. IT WAS VALERIE! i was so shocked hahahahahahahahaha. she came to my ward it was insane!  shes here for 5 weeks! so surprised. i nearly wet myself. lol. not really.

Well...I believe that is mostly the wrap for this week.  We made some good arroz con leche! supessss good.  

It was cold during studies like every day,and we started singing "tengo frio en mi alma hay" instead of of "tengo gozo en mi alma hay." (there is sunshine in my soul today.) hehehehe we are hilarious.

I notice more and more each day how God really is.  I was definitely so blind before! dang.  its seriously insanely awesome!  he blesses me each day and i know he loves me.  

Well, I love yall.  I love the gospel!  Its seriously the best thing ever.  It brings me so much joy.  

Peace out. imma gonna go eat some sushi.

Chao!

Oh, also, if anyone wants to email me, DO IT!!!!! emily.hanks@myldsmail.net

love getting letters.

hermana emily katherine hanks

1. la plaza vina.  be jelly.

2. gnarly murals make me happy. 

3. dont worry mumsy.  safe from the tsunamis. not safe from the temblors!!!! lol lol. 

4. Hahahahaha. on the ward bulletin. 

5. yin and yang are seriously insane i tell ye

6. PIKES PEAK. in thrift store here!!! my life rocks. 

July 1, 2013

Hey hey hey.  soooooooooooooooo ok.

This week was loco.  So, random moment of the day, I woke up this morning with a strange desire to watch a goofy movie. i told hermana schrader and she agreed that watching that does sound like a wonderful thing to do right now.  hahahaha. ummm. anyways.  back to the missionary life!

So if there has ever been a rollercoaster week in my life, this would probably be on the top 3.  maybe even top 2.  After the broadcast, we were super pumped up as you can imagine, like every other missionary out there.  the broadcast was kinda the best thing ever!  

Tuesday took quite a plummet.  It started okay with teaching Francisco.  We taught him about Ammon and cutting off the arms and being a good servant and all.  I realized at the beginning that yes, I know this story in english very well!  Spanish?  litttttle bit rusty there.  We did the best we could and I think he understood for the most part.

After that, we went to go see Daniel y Gabriela.  Ok about them now...so (they were the 15 and 16 year olds).  They seemed real positive when we saw them and all.  When we came back at lunch earlier when we had set the cita, nobody had answered.  It sounded like somebody was home, but nobody replied.  We decided to stop by later and this time, Gabriela let us in the house.  She invited us to sit down, then went to go get her brother.  He was in the other room, and from the tone of his voice, we could tell something was off.  he said (in spanish) 'tell them 'chao' no más!  I think they were suppose to come here earlier and they didn't.  we aren't suppose to let them in the house when mom's not here.'  

The girl came back in the room and invited us to sit down.  I felt bad because I think she knew we had overheard what was being said.  She sat down with us and then her brother came in the room. He respectfully shook our hands and then told us that they want to talk to their parents first and they would converse and see if it was okay for us to come back.  We understood that and decided to just leave them with the restoration.  As we were handing it to her, the mom walked in.  We stood up to greet her, but she was actually quite furious we were in her house.  She told her daughter she wasn't suppose to let us in and that she has read a lot of our mormon bible and doesn't like it.  she wouldn't really let anybody say anything else, and she asking them where the bible was because they wanted it out of their house and to return it to us.  the little girl said, ' mom just leave it', but she didn't listen.  

As we were getting up to go, I just said, 'i just want to leave you with my testimony that I know this is the truth.' and she said ' we don't want to hear any of your testimonies around here.'  gabriela then walked us to the door and said goodbye to them.

If there was a really horribly sad moment on my mission so far....that one wins.  I wasn't angry, just really sad and speechless after that.  It stirred my emotions for sure, and I could see my companion cried a little bit.  

So yeah...theres a sad story for y'all.  but on a happier note, happy story time.

We have to teach alejandro all of the lessons again and lesson five because he is a new member.  He LOVES to talk and the thing with chileans is you have to be very careful about the questions you ask here because it can go off on a rant for a lot of them.  Oh man.  We went and taught him the plan of salvation and it went awesome!  Oriana was super involved and asked questions when she had them.  alejandro only went off on one rant for about 5 minutes (something about a king buying a lady or something nuts).  We felt good about it though, and it was under an hour and the whole plan of salvation.  We also go to teach him about the priesthood this week.  It was a little stressful because i've never taught that before, but we did it.  

Okay, awesome thing!!!! we saw alejandro practicing passing the sacrament before the noche de hogar for the ward.  He is such a funny old man!  We committed him to live worthily for the priesthood the rest of his life and he said he would.  Then, on sunday, we saw him all dressed up in his suit and tie (unlike jeans) and he got to pass the sacrament.  Oh man it was so cool.  I just think of how far he has come-even since he got married, just less than a month ago.  Its cute because hes a little nervous about a lot of stuff, but just does it anyways.  After we taught him about the priesthood, we were leaving and he warned us, 'be careful.  you are like my daughters'.  it so sweet.  

We visited a menos activo this week who was only baptized 5 years ago.  I don't think the elders who taught her did a very good job because as we were leaving she said, 'cuidese (take care)!  pray to jose smith or whomever you pray to!' . hahahaha. loco. we reminded her that we do NOT pray to jose smith.

We went on intercambios this week.  it helped us a TON.  The sister i was on exchanges with liked to run and i like to run, so we went running.  best thing ever! got to see chile at a dead hour of the day but soooooo pretty and quiet.  i haven't run outside forever.  

So for some funny stuffs now.  If you're a gringa around here, you get attention more than you'd ever like.  from literally everybody.  the ones who creep on missionaries are called 'snakes.'. lol.  so we contacted this guy.  he has a motorcycle and always drives by and waves.  hes a really nice dude for sure and makes bread. hahaha.  soooo last night he stopped by and started talking to us on his motorcycle (super coooo right!? lol.)  my companion was just nicely saying she likes his motorcycle just to be friendly.  before he said goodbye, he said, yeah i'm not free for 3 more weeks, but after that, i'll take you girls for a ride and we will go leave. ummmmm hahahahahaha we kinda just looked at each other and laughed.  don't worry of course we won't. just a funny story!  

hahahahahahaha.

our bishop gave a really good talk yesterday about members getting involved in missionary work.  NEEDS TO HAPPEN.  it was awesome.

yesterday morning, we walked outside on our way to church and down a few stairs in our apartment complex, we saw a smashed bottle of liquor. someone was partying a little too hard saturday night i think! sketchhhhhhy.

okay finally, MILENA IS AWESOME.  our investigator.  we watched the restoration with her and she said, yeah i really feel like this is true! she  came to the ward activity and met a lot of people.  i think she really liked it!  only problem is, she has a boyfriend...conviven. but we are working on it!  she is great!  hopefully we will see her baptism in the near future.  

okay well....dat is all. have a good week.  we are safe!  congrats to josh and arden way to go guys!  they will love the mission life i am sure.  that is awesome!

chao!

hermana emily hanks

1.  ok....so i literally fell for this little pup here.  i dont like touching dogs here....BUT IT WAS SO CUTE.  and another dog was being a bully so i loved on it a little bit.

2.  my boy yin. (actualy shes a girl, but wahtever).  so lazy.

3. we learned that recreo is half and half. half valpo and half viña.  this is the valparaiso part.  SICK MURALS!!

4. yeah FLIPPING LOVE THE COAST.  este es chile mis amigas!

5. of course, mi vista favorita en recreo.

6. otra vez. 

7. En Chile, hay un alimento delicioso se llama semola.  Es como pasta, pero es chicitito round balls.  Semejante crema de wheat, pero es un postre aca con fruta o manjar or carmel. Es rico!  

8. Panadería.  Donde las personas compran pan.  Pastelería es similar, pero más dulces.

9. Feliz día de preparacion.  Este es Viña conmigo.  Me encanta.  Mi ciudad.  

June 24th, 2013

Ok so about the crazy subject title.  We have taught Milo some american slang lately and that´s one that he has come to master.

this pday is pretttyyy dang awesome so far.  We did our studies, ate some pan, heard the elementary school out back pound some reggatone...kinda sounded like a dance party,  and then took the cab to viña with a collectivo driver who was very friendly.  sometimes they're really grumpy and get peeved because we don't know good spanish...hahahaha. Things to know about collectivos : the first time you ride them or a microbus) you feel like you might die.  after that, its like the most epic thing ever.  (its like mitch driving on trail creek road...but 10 times crazier!! joking...joking...)  imagine driving through all the concrete chilean houses in their curvy roads, few stoplights, many hills, and seeing the sahweet pacific ocean out your window. yeah be jealous!!  i love chile!!  (plus they were playing bon jovi and sweet child of mine on the radio...soooo that was cool. shhhh.)  

anyways....ok YES the broadcast last night was like the greatest thing ever.  I don't know what the effect will be while i am down here, but i think its awesome.  Like for reals, that is awesome.  Plus, I love Elder Holland´s "buenas tardes" last night.  ohhh man i thought i had a bad gringo accent.  we had a good laugh about that here!  That broadcast seriously pumped me up!  

So...this week.  Until the broadcast, a bit lame.  We got sick...boo.  We both dress warm and all, but i think because everybody is getting sick this time of year.  Plus the air weighs down more because we are closer to the sea...i think.   People always say "abrigense!" which means pretty much put on the layers you moron.  I can't blame them.  it gets dang cold some days!  not like colorado, but just like this sea coldness.  I really tried to tough it out and beat it, but we went out to almuerzo and we both accepted defeat because we could hardly breath.  We went back and studied instead as to not make it worse.  i did however finish the 3 book of nephi, and started into Mormon.      

Okay....3 nephi rocks.  what a happy time to be alive for them!! man its sweet because so many people waited so long for the Savior to come, and he finally comes.  The Gadianton robbers make me crazy though.  And seriously, I love the way the Savior teaches.  Its so simple, but clear!  He is very direct, but so loving. That is a very good quality in a good missionary.  Hermana Schrader calls 4 Nefi the sad book.  Its so true.  It starts out so happy and everybody is friends, then turns into awful chaos that actually did happen.  I can't imagine being Mormon, surrounded by thousands and thousands "as numerous as the sands of the sea" who all are eventually destroyed.  so so sad =(.  Mormon is definitely the best author ever though.  I think he basically beats anybody else, and is super humble about it too.  

   Its pretty sweet that mormon is perceived as a "sober child" when he is ten years old.  shows how flipping amazing and important he is.  May I suggest a chapter to read?  Mormon 8 and 9.  YOUR MIND WILL BE BLOWN.  seriously.  i can't believe i have read the book of mormon so many times and never.  Mormon is dang direct and if you put him speaking like an Elder Holland or Monson (because he uses much boldness), its pretty amazing!!!!

  Its also really sad too.  He loves his people, but can only do so much for them.  Poor guy.  Okay, seriously i'm psyched about the scriptures!! if anyone be wanting a book of mormon discussion, when i get back i'll be the first to sign up.  

  okay so cute moment of the week.  we were at hermana sonias and sharing a scripture with her husband who isn’t a member.  she was trying to clean the dishes because she was going to meet her sister in viña to go shopping and was in a hurry.  she then came and sat down halfway through and said "soy como marta!" i am like martha.  (martha, mary, Jesus story when one is listening and one is cleaning).  it was so cute. hahahah.  she then shared that in relief society yesterday...she is awesome.

   We ate colombian food this week.  courtesy of milo and liliana, and it being leo's birthday.  chilean food is so so, depending on where you're at, but colombian food???? oh my goodness its delicious.  it was like fried bananas, rice, beans, chorizo, pig hide(sounds nasty, but its like bacon).  i'm a fan.  

  we got two new investigators this week!!!!! they are 15 and 16.  Okay so I love teaching that age because they aren't always blind (by the craftiness of men...hehe jk.)  they let us in and we taught them about the book of mormon.  it was interesting.  the girl said she didn't really like to read and kinda had that look on her face of "why are you in my house".  i briefly bore testimony of the book of mormon and the look on her face kinda got serious for a minute.  it was kinda cool.  we get to visit them again on tuesday.  so psyched!  we didn't get to see too many others this week which was super lame, but this week is last week of cambio.  dunno if i'll get transferred, but i'm kinda keeping my fingers crossed to be here one more!  Plus, my spanish is getting better each day and i can finally understand the colombians and chileans!!! (they both talk dang fast. at least down here.)  

   We saw Hermano Rave.  I make sure we see him at least once a week.  he is such a sweet old man.  Hermana sonia came with us and she gets to work.  We cleaned his kitchen, and it was sad because he really is partially paralyzed and can't do much.  we cleaned his kitchen and i trimmed his fingernails.  now i know that doesn't sound exactly appetizing, but the look on his face afterwards of being grateful for something simple...it made me feel really good.

   You may be inquiring of the pictures of us with paint on our faces.  Its a simple game we did for fhe at hna sonias.  you basically write numbers twice and put a circle around them, and count up to about 35.  then you have to draw a line from a number to the other duplicate of that number without touching any other number or line with your pencil.  it is actually super fun.  if you touch them, then you get marked with paint by your opponents.  it was crazy!

we bought empanadas this week and while we were there, what song meets my ear? concerning hobbits, from lotr song. yes.  pretty much made my day.  i kinda was super psyched as you can imagine.  

  Hermana sonia has recently wanted to learn a few english phrases each day.  she kinda half jokes that she needs to know them if she ever visits us in colorado. i wish you could all meet her because she is amazing!!!!!!

   Well yes. i promise next week stories will be better.  we didn't have too much luck and we need members to visit some of the others to help us on some parts.  

   hope y'all like da pictures.  chile is insane.  its still weird to me sometimes that i'm on the other side of the world, but i promise you it is flipping awesome and i love it.  

   have a good week.  les quiero.

   hermana emily hanks

1. crazy soda bottles...coolest ones EVER

2.  ferria, where i buy all my goodies and souvenirs.  yeah pretty sweet.  

3. chilean departamentos.  welcome to lamanite country

4. this bridge reminded me of lord of the rings at the very end in the volcano. love me some lotr

5. what does a missionary do when she sees a picutre of rockclimbing? why take a picture of it of course. oh how i miss climbing my rocks.

6.  mmm. sexy. found this on a members shelf.